Perfecting The Digital Commerce Payments Experience

Perfecting The Digital Commerce Payments Experience

In 2010 the payments industry was transformed by Uber’s first mobile app. With its release, the ride-sharing company introduced consumers to a new reality where taking out their wallet or purse to make a purchase was no longer necessary. Since that time, consumer expectations have evolved and grown with technological advancements and improvements in the customer experience. Today’s environment forces merchants to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers by providing a simple and painless digital experience or risk losing them. Long-term loyalty isn’t easy, but it’s achievable for those merchants who succeed in the following four areas.

Accommodating Every Customer

The preferences and habits of buyers are as different as the people you know. In addition, low-cost transactions call for a different buying experience than expensive ones. This makes a one-size-fits-all approach to servicing consumers largely ineffective. The only way for merchants to accommodate these existing variables is to cater to the needs of each consumer individually. This is best achieved by building customer personas and offering curated experiences. Retailers who know their clientele can anticipate their needs as well as look out for their interests, which will result in customer loyalty.

Feedback

Long-term relationships rely on constant communication in order to endure. Customer Advisory Boards—which exist for the purpose of helping companies to better understand their customers—are invaluable for providing real-time feedback. They help by giving companies insights into consumer trends, priorities and preferences. This crucial information enables companies to interact to consumers instinctively and immediately. Companies that listen closely to their customers and work hard to constantly improve their buying experiences are the ones that build strong, lasting brands.

Trust

Technology is rapidly evolving, but so are the ways in which cybercriminals can do harm. If customers have even a slight degree of hesitation about the security of a company’s website, they’ll shop elsewhere. There are several ways to reduce online fraud. Among them are Address Verification Service (AVS), which verifies the address of a shopper claiming to own a credit card, and Card Verification Value (CVV), which requires the purchaser to enter the 3 digit security number on the back of their card. In addition, merchants should seek out a payment processor who can provide them with fraud prevention tools. The objective is to prevent fraudulent transactions while still allowing valid transactions to occur. Smart merchants are also turning to machine learning in order to stop fraud. Machine learning is an agile solution capable of automatically responding to inconsistencies in consumer behaviors, data, and trends.

Sensible Checkout and Follow Up

A simple checkout process is the key to converting a higher percentage of sales. It’s the reason why Amazon has continually refined and streamlined how their customers make purchases. Many merchants avoid mandatory registration in order to lessen shopping cart abandonment. While this can reduce membership rates, adding an option at checkout to easily create an account with already collected information can mitigate the losses. Following a transaction, email correspondence should be commensurate with the type of purchase made. A flood of emails for a small purchase is unnecessary, and not keeping a consumer up-to-date on a large transaction causes frustration. Additionally, customers should be given clear and easy instructions on how to exchange or return purchased items.

Making the payment process as smooth as possible is a critical component of the consumer buying experience. Smart companies should build teams with dynamic eCommerce talent in order to stay ahead of the rapid and continual changes in the payments space. The best way to find top talent is to partner with a recruiter who understands your industry and has access to a rich pool of candidates.

Tired of hiring zombies? Attract living, breathing talent to your organization by partnering with IMPACT Payments Recruiting. The experienced recruitment consultants at IMPACT have been working with some of the most premier payments companies in the industry for more than a decade, connecting them with exceptional candidates for high-level positions. Our recruiting team is comprised of former payments industry professionals, so we have an in-depth understanding of how to target and evaluate candidates for your hiring needs. Learn more about IMPACT – contact us today.

Find Your Tribe. Make Your IMPACT.